Fire at Aldermaston

Aldermaston Women's Peace Camp had considered cancelling its regular Camp at AWE Aldermaston this weekend as a result of the continuing risk to the public from the fire which broke out on 3 August at the nuclear establishment.

The fact that nearby local residents were evacuated and police road blocks set up for 38 hours around the weapons production site on Tuesday and Wednesday, alerted women to the seriousness of the risk of further explosions or radiological releases."This is the third fire at the site in as many years," a spokeswoman said. "AWE and its MoD Regulators don't seem to learn lessons from these near disasters."

"Our other concern is the proximity of the AWE fire to Aldermaston PSD (Petroleum Storage Depot), very close to AWE, that has its own COMAH major hazard status (higher than AWE's). The main depot is in Silver Lane but there is a cluster of four depots stretching from Padworth towards AWE."AWE Management Ltd runs the site for the MoD and two of the consortium members are USA companies.

"Little ol' Aldermaston' seems to be a low priority among their enterprises. They are notoriously secretive about safety matters and the public can have no confidence in safety at AWE. The cost of safety here is a priority for taxpayers. Proposals to build more nuclear weapons is misguided and irresponsible. It is the British public who are most at risk from British nuclear weapons - an irony that is probably not lost on Al Quada."

MP Caroline Lucas has called for an independent inquiry and for the results to be made available to the public